He was hardly been helped by Jose Mourinho landing three in his own debut campaign across town at Old Trafford, or United’s impressive four-goal romps to start this season.

On top of that is the fact questions are still being asked about City’s strength, with West Brom warhorse Jonny Evans now surprisingly on the radar.

Yet Guardiola remains the same shrug-and-smile Spaniard who arrived in a huge blaze of publicity last year.

And after emerging from the cauldrons of Barcelona and Bayern Munich without a singe on his reputation, he will not be worrying about the heat of justifying title favouritism this time around.

Guardiola, whose season began with a 2-0 win at Premier League new boys Brighton last weekend, kicks off their home campaign against Everton tonight.

He insisted: “It’s the same expectation as last season and the same expectation apart from the first months in Barcelona, when nobody trusted in us. Since then I have carried on with that situation. I can handle it.